19 September 2011
Citizens Advice Bureaux: coming to a church near you
Citizens Advice is working with churches and other places of
worship across the country to make advice services more accessible,
particularly for those living in remote areas. This will provide
face to face advice in the local community rather than users having
to travel significant distances.
Faithful Advice: A guide for advice services in places of worship
Faithful Advice: A guide for advice services in places of worship
published at the Citizens Advice service's annual conference,
provides practical examples and guidelines for churches to set up
face to face advice sessions on their premises. The guidelines
acknowledge that as the public sector cuts bite, churches can play
a vital role in offering premises for advice sessions, particularly
where there are no alternative sites available locally. The
resulting services can save people having to travel up to 50 miles
for face to face advice.
Building on the knowledge and experience gained by pioneering
examples of advice centres in churches, the Cathedral and Church
Buildings Division of the Church of England and the National Rural
Officers for the Church of England, the Church Urban Fund and the
Methodist and United Reformed Churches have been working in
partnership with national charity Citizens Advice to produce this
guidance specifically for places of worship.
The Rt Revd John Gladwin, former Bishop of Chelmsford and Chair of
Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) said: "In an era when the demand for
advice services is increasing and funding cuts may result in advice
outreach locations such as libraries facing closure, advice
agencies must find cost effective ways of ensuring people can get
the face to face advice they need. By working with faith
organisations, Citizens Advice Bureaux have already established
partnerships which enable them to reach out and provide advice
services to some of the most vulnerable and disengaged sections of
our communities."
Graham Jones Rural Officer for the Methodist Church and the United
Reformed Church based at the Arthur Rank Centre said: "There are
already some excellent examples of churches collaborating with CAB
to deliver face to face advice services to less accessible
communities. Our hope is that these guidelines will help develop
this relationship and lead to a growing number of churches acting
as partners and hosts in this way. Building on previous guidelines
encouraging churches to host post offices and community shops, here
is further evidence of the churches' commitment to playing their
part in meeting the needs and challenges of rural and isolated
communities."
Case studies
Nottingham CAB runs a drop-in general advice service for two and a
half hours every Monday morning at St Mark's CofE Church, Bestwood
village. The CAB report that "The fact that they provide volunteers
to simply be in the building and provide backup in terms of
personal safety is very important to us".
North Somerset CAB run an outreach service in the community centre
at Nailsea Methodist Church every Friday between 10am and 2pm. This
enables individuals to get face to face advice without having to
travel 20 miles to the main bureau, while Berwick CAB operated a
service in the URC in Wooler, a market town 25 miles from the main
bureau. The service was highly valued by clients and produced some
great successes gaining benefits for older clients and wages for
migrant workers.
East Lindsey CAB, working with Spilsby Methodist Church in
Lincolnshire, was successful in securing funding to develop part of
the church as a community centre on the ground floor with interview
rooms, a community area, kitchen area and toilets and upper floor
as a "Bunk Barn" offering basic overnight accommodation for
tourists. This is run as a social enterprise to support "Spilsby
Meeting Point". This involved partnership work with Methodist
Church, CofE, Age UK and other community based organisations.
The guidance is available online here:
www.citizensadvice.org.uk/index/aboutus/publications/faithful_advice.htm.